Thomas Quine

Hi Philosophience - your position is a very common one. I call it the "Thatcher/Reagan" position or the Libertarian thesis. Thatcher famously said, "T...

Actually there is quite a lot of work done on what constitutes human flourishing, and we should never rely on personal opinion on these matters, but r...

Well I said in earlier posts at the start of this thread that all moral systems appear to aim for this end, whether they express that explicitly and l...

I'm trying to go a little deeper. I see what you're saying, complexity requires rules. But I'm pretty sure you're not saying, the purpose of morality ...

Well, that's "how", but my question is "Why?" Why is it that we try to organize our increasingly complex systems of interaction?

Well we disagree about morality being grounded in natural biological imperatives, but perhaps we can move on from there. Do you think there is a capit...

Well I want to show that morality is grounded in the logic of the natural universe. In a nutshell, that logic says, "Persist or perish". That is the l...

I stated way back that just as "the market" is an emergent property of countless people engaging in transactions with one another, so morality is an e...

I was talking turkey. You suggested that the success of a species should be measured only by the extent of propagation of genetic material. This is a ...

Well science is all about evidence, and I think before you go to help a friend in trouble you should be sure you have reliable evidence that they are ...

I interpret your repetition of "as many offspring as possible" as implying mindless propagation, because you say that the only common objective of all...

Many people believe that life is hell but there’ll be pie in the sky when you die. This is a human aspiration for a better life, that seems impossible...

Obviously we are fitted with instincts right from birth like any other animal. Our instincts can provide subconscious guidance when confronting moral ...

It is possible that in classes on the philosophy of religion Divine Command Theory has nothing to do with human flourishing in this world or the next,...

Hi Pro Hominem, nice to see a Pro for a change instead of an Ad... I go to the species level not to make things complicated but to make them simpler. ...

) OK, I read the Harman piece very quickly, great article, great critique of utilitarianism, but again two problems pop up which all these philosopher...

Such a lot to cover in these recent posts but let me start with this. Aristotle defines the ultimate Good and goal of life, Eudaimonia, as “living wel...

OK, this is very useful, thank you for the references, dammit, now I have to go back and check what they say. Lots of philosophers talk about flourish...

The strategy every living species uses to propagate genetic material is to flourish. Every species has a different approach. Some fish and primitive f...

I think you are mistaking me for Isaac... Super busy today but will reply as soon as I can...

People consider something to be moral if they believe that in the final analysis it serves human flourishing. Their beliefs are not always justified. ...

I've been looking around to find anyone making the same arguments I am making here. If you can direct me to a source you are familiar with I'd be grat...

G.E. Moore, who coined the term "Naturalistic Fallacy", has a quote I like a lot: “…ow “good” is to be defined, is the most fundamental question in al...

Hi Tim - as I mentioned in an earlier post, people will consider something to be moral if they believe it serves human flourishing. They are not alway...

Hi András - this is an original approach of mine inspired by Aristotle and Darwin. It has no resemblance to utilitarianism apart from being consequent...

The universe proceeds along a recognizable trajectory, the laws of physics are called "laws", not because they are written in some universal statute b...

Tim, if I understand you correctly you believe that the evolving work-in-progress called morality is somehow not a product of the logic of the univers...

I would say if someone does something that hinders or sets human flourishing back, something that is detrimental to human flourishing, that would be i...

Well, most scientist agree that life exists somewhere else in the universe, because given an apparently unlimited number of planets, the conditions th...

I think you are right to see a pattern, to see human morality as just one expression of a deeper logic at work in the universe. This is a departure fr...

Sorry about your dog! I have said, and this as far as I know has not been remarked upon by anyone else, that the main difference between humans and an...

You are right, I am trying to marry ethical theory to biology. My critique of traditional ethical theory is that it has little or no objective groundi...

No, Eugenics assumes we know which human qualities best serve human flourishing, and it turns out, who could have guessed, the people who want to make...

Praxis, you are quite right to question the value of GDP, lots of work has been done on this to prove that economic growth can sometimes produce resul...

I said in an earlier post that the simplest definition of "to flourish" I could find in online dictionaries is "to grow or develop in a healthy or vig...

To the question, "Does mask-wearing during a pandemic serve human flourishing?", science can indeed tell us the answer. I provided evidence from scien...

It’s important to defend individual liberties, especially freedom of speech. I see diversity of opinion as a great strength of any group, a work team,...

Let's see if we can pick up the thread here. My assertion was only that mask-wearing was more conducive to human flourishing than to assert personal l...

You got me Isaac, I'm not a scientist. That's why I look to people who are. https://wapo.st/3fdqWXy

Like pretty much all moral systems, Divine Command Theory is an attempt to answer the question, "What best serves human flourishing?" For DCT, the ans...

This global pandemic is hell everywhere, but compare places where the pandemic is raging out of control at least in part because of a libertarian resi...

You're such a pussycat!

These questions are related to the free will question. I have heard some people argue that there is no such thing as free will, since our actions are ...

Praxis, I think you are underestimating the importance of the healthy flourishing of the host organism to the successful reproduction of the gene. A l...

Are you asking me to prove scientifically here in the forum that theft; murder; sexual abuse; pedophilia; breaking contracts; lying; corruption; slave...

If morality is an attempt to advance the cause of human flourishing, it needs to look to science for better answers. Not holy books, not convoluted ph...

Selfish genes seek to reproduce into the next generation. They do this by helping to create species that flourish.

Hi sime, sorry, did not understand the question, can you restate in a different form? Thanks!

I am saying that all moral theories attempt to provide rules that if followed will serve human flourishing. Religion follows that up with threats and ...

The Quran tells us: "...those who disbelieve, for them are cut out garments of fire, boiling water shall be poured over their heads. With it shall be ...